London Day Trips: 6 Days Off the Path
Six days: the same 5-day plan , Windsor, the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Oxford, Cambridge, and a combined Bath and Stonehenge day, plus the Cotswolds as a guided sixth day. Need a seventh, the 7-day version adds Brighton on top of exactly this spine.
Book these before you go
- Warner Bros Studio Tour (Day 2), zero walk-up tickets exist, ever; book at wbstudiotour.co.uk or check availability on GetYourGuide .
- Windsor Castle (Day 1), GBP 32 advance versus GBP 36 at the door, book at rct.uk .
- Stonehenge (Day 5), GBP 27.20 standard admission already reflects an advance-booking discount; confirm current tiers at english-heritage.org.uk .
- The Cotswolds (Day 6), no walk-up option in practice; book a Cotswolds day tour from London rather than assembling the rail-plus-local-transport chain yourself.
The six days at a glance
| Day | Focus | Travel time from London | One-way transport |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Windsor Castle | 22-28 min (Paddington) or 55 min (Waterloo) | Great Western Railway or South Western Railway |
| 2 | Warner Bros Studio Tour | About 20 min to Watford Junction, then a shuttle | London Northwestern Railway (Euston) |
| 3 | Oxford | 51 min to just over an hour | Great Western Railway (Paddington) |
| 4 | Cambridge | 45-49 min | Great Northern / LNER (King’s Cross) |
| 5 | Bath and Stonehenge | 1 hr 15 min to Bath; Stonehenge has no station | Great Western Railway (Paddington), then coach/shuttle |
| 6 | The Cotswolds | 1 hr 20-24 min to the nearest gateway station | Great Western Railway (Paddington) to Moreton-in-Marsh or Kingham |
Day 1: Windsor Castle
Paddington to Slough, change for Windsor & Eton Central, about 22 to 28 minutes total, or a direct Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside run of about 55 minutes. Entry is GBP 32 booked in advance, GBP 36 at the door, and the schedule can shift at short notice since it’s a working royal residence.
Day 2: Warner Bros Studio Tour
There are no walk-up tickets to the Warner Bros Studio Tour, ever. Entry-only tickets start around GBP 56. The cheap route in: Euston to Watford Junction, about 20 minutes, then the dedicated shuttle bus for a GBP 3 return fare, contactless or card only.
Day 3: Oxford
Great Western Railway from Paddington, 51 minutes to just over an hour. Christ Church’s Great Hall runs about GBP 22.50 to 24.50; the Divinity School, the actual Hogwarts-infirmary filming location, is a separate GBP 3 ticket capped at 15 minutes. See the full Oxford breakdown .
Day 4: Cambridge
King’s Cross direct, about 45 to 49 minutes. King’s College Chapel runs GBP 16.50 on weekdays, GBP 17.50 on weekends. Punting on the Cam costs roughly GBP 12 to 20 per person.
Day 5: Bath and Stonehenge
Bath Spa is about an hour and fifteen minutes direct from Paddington; Stonehenge has no station of its own, reached by a combined coach and tour or a train to Salisbury plus a connecting shuttle. Roman Baths pricing is dynamic, from around GBP 20 in advance. Stonehenge’s standard admission, GBP 27.20 adult, buys a view from a roped perimeter, not a walk among the stones.
Day 6: The Cotswolds
No single gateway station exists for the Cotswolds. Moreton-in-Marsh, about an hour and 24 minutes from Paddington, and Kingham, about an hour and 20, are the practical rail entry points, both needing a taxi, bus, or pre-booked tour onward into villages like Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, or Stow-on-the-Wold. A guided minibus day, roughly 9.5 hours, is the common car-free route and typically covers three to four villages.
Is the Cotswolds worth doing without a car?
Yes, but expect a tour to do the heavy lifting. Between the lack of a single gateway station and thin public transport between villages themselves, a guided minibus day is how most car-free visitors actually see three or four villages in one day rather than stranding themselves at one train station with no onward connection.
Why does the Cotswolds come after Bath and Stonehenge instead of before?
Because Days 1 through 5 all hinge on a specific booked time slot, Windsor’s entry window, the Studio Tour’s fixed hour, Stonehenge’s admission slot, while the Cotswolds tour is the most flexible day to reschedule if weather or an earlier delay pushes the route back by a day.
Pack layers regardless of the forecast for Day 6; the Cotswolds’ open fields and village churchyards run noticeably colder than central London on the same afternoon.